British Airways has operated it's first long-haul Airbus A350 "flight". The airline filled their first Airbus A350 with 331 willing volunteers for an imaginary seven and a half hour flight to Dubai.

Recently we've reported on quite a few flights to nowhere. While these have largely been incident related, such as the recent case of a KLM 777 flight to Johannesburg, the BA flight is different. In fact, BA's flight never even left Heathrow. It didn't even leave its stand. Instead, the airline seems to have been testing how the crew cope with seven and a half hours onboard the new Airbus A350.

Dubai debut coming

The first long-haul destination to which British Airways will operate its Airbus A350 to is Dubai. In fact, it is now less than a month until the airline will start flying the seven and a half hour route to the United Arab Emirates.

British Airways wants to make sure that the first long haul flights go without a hitch. While the airline has already been testing the aircraft to Madrid, with a flight time of only two hours it is not representative of a long haul mission. For example, only one meal is served, the IFE isn't on for an extended period of time, and the facilities receive only light usage.

7.5 hours to nowhere

In order to test the Airbus A350, British Airways simulated a seven and a half hour flight using the plane. Everything from the meal service to the seatbelt signs were as they would be on an actual flight. The only difference was that the aircraft never took off. A British Airways representative told us that the seven and a half hour flight was chosen to mimic the flight time to Dubai.

In addition, Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, added,

“Our teams across the business have been working hard to ensure that every aspect of our customers’ experience meets and exceeds their expectations, as we prepare the A350 for long haul flights this September.”

The reason for the test was to make sure that everything works perfectly when the first long-haul flight does take off. If there's a problem with the distribution of food, for example, it is better to discover it on the ground. The airline thus has around half a month to work out how to change things. As such, many departments, including cabin crew, inflight entertainment and catering teams were involved in the trial.

Additionally, the flight was fully loaded, as major problems would be more likely to come out with a full load rather than a half-full load.

Would you like to have been on the seven and a half hour flight to nowhere? Let us know in the comments!